As a South Korean, I wonder how people worldwide (outside Korea) view North Korea's recent threats. Believe it or not, most South Koreans - myself included - don't give a f*** about NK's rants because they've been doing it for decades and we all know they're just bluffing. Ironically, when I read news from abroad, it looks like foreigners are more worried about the prospect of war than us, while we are at peace as we always have been. The chances that NK will actually start a war is infinitely close to zero, because that will be tantamount to signing their own death warrant by the combined forces of SK and the United States. Unless Kim is really crazy and over his head.

Elderly South Koreans in their 70's or above who actually experienced the Korean War in 1950, had their families killed and homes destroyed by North Korean forces still harbor an intense contempt toward NK. Younger generations tend to be more sympathetic, and believes that we may unite one day. However, NK's nuclear experiments and threats over the past few years have fueled people's hatred against NK; the South Korean government officially doesn't recognize NK as an independent state, but rather labels it as an armed terrorist organization that has seized the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. While we come from the same ancestors, we don't view North Koreans as a fellow Korean anymore, but as traitors of the Korean race.

Although most North Koreans seem to have been brainwashed from a young age that SK and the US are evil, we are taught in schools and military that North Koreans are still our primary enemy and they should be eliminated without mercy should they invade and try to take our land. There's a sad history behind why Korea was split into North and South in the first place, but none of that matters anymore; ever since NK decided to invade SK on June 25 of 1950, they crossed the point of no return.

A few points:

- I do think NK are mostly bluster and have been for a long time. Of course, bluster with a nuclear arsenal is a different story.

- I do think the NK establishment is a little out of their minds.

- I'm not sure sure that NKs are brainwashed as much as they are massively oppressed. I bet the average NK couldn't give you an honest opinion one way or another without being beaten/killed.

- Bear in mind that any North Korean over the age of 62 has NOT, in fact, crossed the point of no return. If as a person or people you hold onto facts and realities that existed before you were born, conflict will never, ever end.

I guess in my part of the world we see it as a show of power by Kim Jong Un to cement his grasp over North Korea. However, I think the reason why the west is looking worried is because KJU is young and western educated - he isn't a carbon copy of his father. No one is really certain if he carries the same eccentricities as his father, or if he has different ones altogether.

Thanks! Sorry to skip out all unannounced. On a side note, I seem to have gone through Infinite pretty quickly without even trying to rush. If there's some kind of crazy side quest I might have missed, can someone PM me with what it might be?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Achmedisdead

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it is actually Absent With Out Leave.....surely somebody here is a veteran and can confirm?

Originally Posted by wink

Absent without leave is correct....

Yup, I think you guys are right. Must have been more tired than I thought last night.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silent One

warrenpchi's return was enough for me to break my own silence... welcome back!

Aye, thanks bro! Sorry I didn't get a chance to congratulate you on the new addition the other day. It looks mighty impressive! And by mighty impressive I mean holy cow!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigitalFreak

Mr Hudson and Mr Bay are both definitely bass heads

Mr. Hudson doesn't seem like he can handle it. Good thing you didn't give him an LP2.

I guess in my part of the world we see it as a show of power by Kim Jong Un to cement his grasp over North Korea. However, I think the reason why the west is looking worried is because KJU is young and western educated - he isn't a carbon copy of his father. No one is really certain if he carries the same eccentricities as his father, or if he has different ones altogether.

There is also the possibility that he is just a puppet, being manipulated by some other parties in order to maintain the dynasty. On that isn't a dynasty meant to rise and fall within 3 generations (or something along these lines?)

I think that is great news, and I think we head-fiers are always on the look-out for new music.

Doesn't work for me, I often get annoyed when I listen to the radio, well depending what station it's on. Listening to non-used-up music has it's merits though. Maybe it works if you're not cranky and old.

Doesn't work for me, I often get annoyed when I listen to the radio, well depending what station it's on. Listening to non-used-up music has it's merits though. Maybe it works if you're not cranky and old.

There is also the possibility that he is just a puppet, being manipulated by some other parties in order to maintain the dynasty. On that isn't a dynasty meant to rise and fall within 3 generations (or something along these lines?)

There wasn't any argument over whether Kim Il-Sung was in charge. He also took pains to ensure his son, Kim Jong-Il, was well-positioned to both inherit the mantle of the government and the cult of personality he had built -- When Kim Il-Sung died, the transition was pretty smooth, considering the nature of rule there.

Kim Jong-Il doesn't seem to have done as good a job in guaranteeing his own preferred son's inheritance of the leadership. Kim Jong-Un's accelerated matriculation through the ranks of government -- basically a frogmarch through the bona fides of head-of-the-military, head-of-internal-affairs, etc. within a year, compared to his father's several decades -- not only made the sham obvious but, more importantly, gave him no time to make the personal connections and relationships necessary to form a strong coalition to reinforce his position. This was bad planning on Kim Jong-Il's part, assuming the old man cared about his family. But it's also too early to tell -- Kim Jong-Un's only been in power for a year.

Current speculation is that the noise coming out of North Korea is Kim Jong-Un's attempts to prove his strength to the military, and the actual threat level to the outside world is unchanged. To what extent this is actually an admission of how weak his power is is hard to tell -- seems to me that if he had sufficient numbers of allies within the ranks, he would be making a show, instead, of disposing of a few antagonists in appropriate ways and promoting his own factions -- instead, belligerence directed outward indicates to me that he doesn't feel there are enough people behind him and so he's got to impress everybody instead. Or that he's simply not spent enough time inside the government to know how things work, and he's not smart enough or strong enough to shape the party to his needs.

The problem the generals have, in turn, is that three generations of North Korea have had their entire world view filtered through the cult of personality directed at the male line of Kims. Deposing Kim Jong-Un does not make the generals' lives or acquisition of power easier, at least not without providing some form of narrative that can readily replace that cult. And, of course, only one man can replace him, but it's going to take more than one man to get rid of him. From the generals' point of view, the path of least effort is for KJU to remain in his seat as their puppet -- but he's clearly unwilling to play along.

Blamming the drugee prostitute is easy. Finding how the A honors student fell to its knees is another one.

The actual other side of the POV historically is rarely discussed.

To break it down:
This entire problem was caused by unjust Imperialism to contain communism( fight against ussr who helped n korea)

Popular revolutions in s korea were put down by the then facist near authoritarian government of s korea backed by the US. Re unification was what they called for.

Sanctions, and inabiltiy to re unify in the korean war created this problem.

As re unification failed, with the ussr and china dropping puppet state support in 80s and sanctions with a divided country. They were constantly backed into a corner. Thy had no bargaining chips.

As Pubilus puts it (who wrote the federalist papers), any nation that is undermined by a more powerful one will of course develop arms.

N korea is crazy and a farce today. But they are in a corner now. That is why.

I can not blame the drugee who is spewing crap all over the place when what caused it was unjust.

The thought has been for 40 years tht N korea is a failed state about to collapse. 40 years later and tht still hasnt happened.

What makes them bad or evil?

As Karl Marx puts it bourgeoisis tacticts have created a world after its own image.

Consumerism, capitalism, all controlled by the man.

N Korea under their first leader I would argue truly is what represented and was the real korea. The first leader actually was a real one and emodied everything. The south govt were the evil facists.(they used to be under jap. emp. command)

It was an excuse to get power, promote war industry, imperialize, build up massive arms, and undermine the regular citizen.

I like to argue for the little man. And so I will thus argue that the ussr, didnt exactly imperialize, but took in nations to create buffer zones. Whilst the us in ww2 to cold war actively took imperializing actions.